Yes, yes, I know – publicity on this has frankly reached saturation point. But a) It’s going to be great, and b) This could mark the “regeneration” (HA HA!) of British Telefantasy.

So, Saturday 26th March on BBC ONE @ 7:00pm is the time; and don’t forget to watch out for the work of the BBC Model Unit – featuring the dream team of Tyler & Tucker. Now, will we be seeing raw effects footage on the new series Who releases, I wonder…

Yes, the first episode’s great (guilty downloader…). It makes me pray for the return of Dwarf to TV somehow. There’s this don’t-give-a-shit insanity to the Doctor that Christopher Eccleston has got exactly right, judging by the first ep anyway.

It’s the most expensive looking BBC show I’ve ever seen (not counting something like Walking With Dinosaurs) and for once the show isn’t crap. It shows what can happen when the BBC actually let talented people make a show for them rather than hiring some two-bit dickhead scriptwriter who they only have to pay pittance. It didn’t seem to me like there was any model work in the first episode, some CG and practical effects though, but I’ll be looking out for Tucker’s work.

The CGI really sucked though. And judging from the direction Davies seems to be taking (from the minute-long montage on Jon Ross and the episode guide), there seems to be a over-reliance on CGI effects which are bound to suck on the budget and the time spent on them. I didn’t expect Hollywood CGI but if they use crap CGI where it is unneccesery, they deserve all the stick they can get.

I was disappointed with some aspects of the show but I’ll be tuning in next week.

The CGI really sucked though……over-reliance on CGI effects which are bound to suck on the budget….

The expectations of the basic veiwer really has to amazing to keep them happy.. over used? as Mike Tucker said in the Radio Times “quote” “Explosions can be full-sized, in which case physical effects do it, or miniture, or a combination with CGI, it’s a question which works best on screen, for this we made a one sixth scale model of the roof and blew it apart with petrol and gunpowder.

So my question being what do you really want? You know the budget is far less than an episode of Star Trek lets say, so how can you be dissapointed in the overall look, somethings are impossible to do in any other way than using a computer, the sonic screwdriver for example. There seams to be a massive argument between physical models and CGI work not only in Dr Who but in Red Dwarf as well. Which from my point of veiw seems to damn the episode to death because it’s got a few CGI effects, regardless of the content held within. “The Starbug looked crap it came from a computer” I mean come on, we are now in the 21st century would you have all special effects back to blue screen overlay? TV, film, has pushed the limits of what can be done every time we watch. So you can’t expect to have Matrix effects in a British TV show with limited budget and time restraints, they did the best with what they had and it looked great, for sheer entertainment value, which it’s intended for, was the best British Sci-Fi I’ve seen in many years.

Listen, I have nothing against CGI. I’m not one of these rather annoying people who say for example; ‘Lord of the Rings battles are crap because they aren’t real and its all done on a computer’ – this is stupid because no battles are done for ‘real’ and CGI is simply another way of creating an illusion. I have got something against crap CGI, just like I’d have against crap model work, crap food in a restaurant or crap plastic surgery.

Found it to be a step in the right direction. Eccleston still hasn’t won me over but atleast this episode allowed him a little bit of acting rather than just frantic mugging. Story itself was passable and there were some genuinely good ideas.

Dr Who ep. did someone say “Dune” ? if that entrance wasn’t stolen from the film Dune i don’t know what was! I’m not having a go, it’s one of my favorite films, this was better than the first episode, as we got into some action and a few alien type stuff, Cassandra was well…er flat take note skinny super models! the spider infultrators were reminiscent of Lost in Space and Stargate, but had quite good scare value, the effects WOW I want these guys doing the Movie! yes I liked them! Is this the first time the Doctor has cried on screen? and did he get a woody when he met the tree princess?.

The second episode of Doctor Who featured Jasmin Bannerman (ground controller from Back In The Red part 3) and Simon Day (Randy Navarro from Holoship).
Nice to see theyre still earning a living in sci-fi.